wtccfandomcom-20200214-history
Robert Huff
Robert "Rob" Peter Huff (born 25 December 1979 in Cambridge) is a British racing driver. He currently competes in the World Touring Car Championship driving for Lada Sport Lukoil. He was the 2012 World Touring Car Champion. in 2005]] World Touring Car Championship Chevrolet (2005–2012) The SEAT BTCC team was run by Ray Mallock in 2004, and when his company took on the fledgling Chevrolet WTCC project, they retained Huff. At the season opening Race of Italy, he finished ahead of his more experienced team mates Alain Menu and Nicola Larini in race one. He collided with the BMW of Antonio García in his home race at Silverstone, forcing him to retire. In what was a difficult season with the new car, Huff's best result of 2005 was a sixth place in Mexico and with it he took the first points for the Lacetti in the WTCC. He finished the year joint 20th with Stéphane Ortelli in the drivers' championship with only the three points scored in Mexico. That year he also did a one off in the guest car of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, but collided with championship contender Tim Harvey in race one. In 2006 he finished fourth at Brands Hatch, which was his best result of the first half of the season. He was taken to hospital after an accident at Puebla. At the following event at Brno in the Czech Republic, Huff started 24th due to two 10-place grid penalties, but he fought through to eighth place in the first race, which gave him pole for race 2 – giving him a lead he never relinquished en route to a first WTCC win, and the first for Chevrolet in the dry. However, the rest of the season was short on results, he finished 16th in the final standings. There was an improvement in form once again from the Chevrolet team in 2007, Huff took a further win at the Scandinavian Raceway in Sweden, plus three more podiums, including his part in a Chevrolet 1–2–3 at Porto. These results ultimately left him ninth overall in the series, but behind team-mates Larini and Menu. The team took a win at every new circuit introduced for the 2007 season. He opened 2008 with four pointless races, but came in first and second in the two races at Valencia. He was disqualified from the second race of the FIA WTCC Race of the Czech Republic due to his car having an illegal anti-roll bar linkage. At Brands Hatch he made his 100th WTCC start, qualifying third and taking the lead after a lap one collision between Menu and pole sitter Augusto Farfus. He led until a puncture three laps from the end. He finished the season third in the championship, behind SEAT drivers Yvan Muller and Gabriele Tarquini. For 2009, Chevrolet switched to the Cruze chassis. Huff did not make the best of starts to the season, failing to progress through to Q2 at the Race of Brazil and scoring no points. It was not until the Race of Morocco when things picked up; Huff took pole position and won the first race to take his first points of the season and the first win for the Chevrolet Cruze. He qualified fifth at the Race of France but a good start meant he passed pole sitter Andy Priaulx and then Farfus on the second lap to take his second win of the season. Huff qualified on the front row for his home event, the Race of UK. He passed pole sitter Menu and led away from the restart after the safety car but was re-passed Menu, depriving Huff of a home win and putting him under pressure from the BMW of Priaulx. Huff qualified sixth for the Race of Germany but dropped to sixteenth on the grid after an engine change incurred a ten-place grid penalty. A first lap incident in the first race eliminated Huff along with Jörg Müller, Jordi Gené and Farfus. Gené caused an accident in the first race of the Race of Italy, making contact with Huff under braking who then made contact with SEAT of Rickard Rydell. Huff escaped any serious damage to hold onto third. He took pole position for the season finale at Macau and dominated the first race. Huff finished the season ranked fifth in the championship, ahead of team mates Alain Menu and Nicola Larini. In 2010, he finished the championship third behind new team mate Yvan Muller and Tarquini. The Chevrolet Cruze was the dominant car in 2011, winning all but three races. The Chevrolet drivers were in a title battle all of their own, with Huff leading the championship early in the season. Muller took the lead later on, taking the battle right down to the last event at Macau. Huff won both races but this was not enough to stop Muller taking the title, his second with Chevrolet and his third in total. In 2012, Chevrolet announced this to be their last season in WTCC. The Chevy Cruze "blue train" with Huff, Yvan Muller and Alain Menu was again dominant over the field, taking 20 wins out of 24 races in the season. Muller took nine wins and led the championship for most of the season, Huff showed consistency and finished in the points for all the races except two. Finishing behind Muller did not seem enough until Muller tagged Menu from the lead in Shanghai, the penultimate round of the championship, sending Menu into a big slide and letting Huff through to overtake both of them and win the race. Menu lost a vital race win and Muller was given a penalty after the race, putting him out of the points altogether, giving Huff a big lead in the points. Menu was furious with Muller, saying "Yvan ruined both of their championships". In the final round in Macau, Huff was a clear favourite with a 37-point lead over Menu and 42 over Muller after qualifying on pole. In the first race though, drama unfolded. Huff lost the lead to Muller on lap one and overtook him on lap four to regain the lead but right after made a driving error and touched the barrier twice, forcing him to retire with damage. Muller won the race ahead of Menu, both reviving their chances for the championship. Huff's car got repaired for race two, with the help of both Menu's and Muller's crews in Chevrolet. Huff started the race eighth and had to finish fifth to secure the championship. On lap four, Yvan Muller ran into the back of Alex MacDowall's Chevrolet coming out of Mandarin, the fastest corner in the WTCC calendar, which spun MacDowall into the wall hard. The race was effectively finished with two safety car periods. Huff finished the race second behind Menu and ahead of Muller, with Chevrolet's campaign in World Touring Cars ending on another 1–2–3 finish for the team. Second place points were more than enough for Huff to win his first World Touring Car title and the first title for a British driver since Andy Priaulx in 2007. Münnich Motorsport (2013) Huff joined ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport in February 2013, driving one of the team's SEAT León WTCCs and replacing Markus Winkelhock in their lineup for the 2013 season. He failed to set a time in qualifying for the Race of Italy having collided with the Wiechers-Sport car of Fredy Barth in the first few minutes of Q1 and breaking his suspension. He was allowed to start the races from the back and climbed up to sixth place at the end of race one. His car received further attention prior to the start of race two and he started from the pit lane and finished tenth. Lada Sport (2014–) At the 2013 FIA WTCC Race of China it was announced Huff would join Lada Sport for the 2014 World Touring Car Championship season, having signed a two–year deal with the team. Category:Drivers Category:British drivers Category:Chevrolet drivers Category:WTCC champions Category:Lada drivers Category:SEAT drivers